Carcassonne to the Pyrenees (Mt Canigou)

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Monday 20th July - Carcassonne - Vernet-Les-Bains

Rather than take the autoroute via Perpignan, I elected to take a direct route folllowing La route de Carthars and over the Col de Jeu. Brilliant ride, although after yesterdays excursion the M25 would have seemed interesting so I may not be at my most objective. Once on the move the weight doesn't bother me too much and as long as it is dry you can still have fun. With the wind noise under control there is little to complain about the bike, save for a switch like throttle at low openings (necessitating over use of the clutch) and the most ridiculously inaccurate fuel gauge in the automotive world. You'd get a more accurate reading sticking your tadger in there. Would that make it a dickstip? (as opposed to dipstick...) These minor gripes aside it is a superb bike and worthy of all the hype in the press.

The route impressively carved its way through the rocks - standing up on the pegs would have placed your bonce perilously close to the overhang. Another impressively engineered road. And another thing - you can ride anywhere you like in France and the road surface is largely excellent. In the UK it seems every road has had some cable laying moron rip up the middle part of it with a subsequently sub-standard repair with horrible overbanding on the edges. (Overbanding is the dark black shiny stuff.) Doesn't affect car drivers but it's a pain for bikes. Yes you only get little squirms when you corner on overbanding but it upsets your rhythm, well mine anyway. I haven't seen one cable wrecked road in what must be 1000 miles in France. Either the French do the job properly and resurface the entire road surface or they just don't let anybody and everybody rip up their roads.

I like Vernet-Les-Bains and I can see Mt Canigou from my camp spot as you can see - superb. It is however stiflingly hot. I only went for a 2½ hike today and the heat is exhausting. I am not convinced about trying to make the top of Canigou which is 2800m (over 9000ft) and a 12 hour return hike - the heat may get the better of me. We'll see...

Note: Backlog of updates due to lack of internet access. Is this France or Estonia or what? I guess that is the price you pay for pristine roads. Uploading this whilst it is sunny outside my room window in Barcelona so will continue uploads later this evening....

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Comments

[Pete]

Cable Trenches
Fully agree with you comments comparing UK and French roads. However, the main culprits in digging up our roads are EDF friggin Energy - they aren't permitted to dig up the roads in their native France so enjoy digging up ours instead!

[Jason T]

Bald headed chicken f*cker .....
Gary - glad to see you on the move again. I was in Carcassonne myself a couple of years back doing a cycle ride from Toulouse to coast along Canal du Midi ...... nice part ! All the best and may you steer well clear of dubious "barriers" made from cheese-wire and so forth ! Jason